Meningitis threat scared team in March

ATLANTA — Five months after the Warriors’ David West alluded to some unreported adversity that the team had encountered on its way to a second straight NBA title, the issue in question finally has been revealed.

According to the Athletic’s Sam Amick, Golden State dealt with a team-wide meningitis scare in mid-March. The concern stemmed from an outside vendor who prepared the team’s food daily. After contracting a contagious, bacterial form of the disease, the vendor took time off to fight it, eventually returning to work with the team.

Per the Athletic, the scare was at its height between a road game at Minnesota on March 11 and a home game against the Lakers on March 14. The team went to great lengths to ensure that the disease didn’t spread to its players and coaching staff.

Most Warriors players and some members of the basketball operations staff got vaccinations. Golden State even moved a practice to Oracle Arena while its practice facility, located at the top of the Oakland Convention Center, was sanitized.

The practice facility’s team dining room also was closed briefly for cleaning, forcing players and coaches to eat elsewhere. Doctors addressed the Warriors about the situation and tried to ease any concerns about the meningitis spreading.

This all came early in the Warriors’ late-season rut, when they dropped 10 of 17 games and were candid about struggling with complacency. They also were dealing with injuries to multiple key players, making the health scare more worrisome.

“It was just a serious health scare where, for me, it’s just something like, ‘Wow,’” West, now retired from the NBA, told the Athletic. “That was in my mind at the time (of his post-Finals quotes).

“It was the entire team (that was affected). It was crazy. It was the heart of the season. It was something that, again, it showed the strength of the organization” that it got through it to win the title.

Though the organization declined to comment on the Athletic’s story, a team spokesman confirmed its details.

Injury updates: Forward Draymond Green has been ruled out for the rest of the team’s road trip.

“He’s not going to play on this trip, but he is making some strides,” Golden State head coach Steve Kerr said after shootaround Monday at State Farm Arena. “He had a good workout this morning. Everything is positive. He ramped up his work, but the timing just won’t allow him to play on this trip. I think it’ll be shortly thereafter.”

Green has been dealing with his toe issue for almost four weeks. Not including the Nov. 13 win over Atlanta that he missed because of suspension, Green has been sidelined 11 of the past 13 games — including the past nine — by injury.

The Warriors have two more games — Wednesday in Cleveland and Friday in Milwaukee — before returning to the Bay Area ahead of Monday’s game against Minnesota at Oracle Arena.

Forward Alfonzo McKinnie has missed the past nine games — including Monday’s — with a sore left foot. However, he is probable for Wednesday’s game in Cleveland.

Connor Letourneau moved to the Golden State Warriors beat in September 2016 after a year covering Cal. Previously, he spent two years covering the Oregon State Beavers for The Oregonian. Letourneau is a University of Maryland alum who has interned for The Baltimore Sun and blogged for The New York Times. A Portland, Ore., native, he is interested in telling the stories that extend beyond the field or court.